Hybrid printers having two or more printing mechanisms are known. One type of hybrid printer has a non-impact type thermal printing mechanism and an impact type wire dot printing mechanism, with a control circuit for controlling both printing mechanisms based on data transferred from a host device such as a host computer. In this type of hybrid printer, customer receipts for example are printed on thermal paper while slip forms such as cheques and vouchers are printed using a wire dot printing mechanism.
EP-A-834828 relates to a hybrid printer of this type, where each printing mechanism can be selectively controlled from a host computer, wherein error processing is performed according to the selected printing mechanism.
One issue with hybrid printing mechanisms is the need to make such devices compact yet not compromise the printing mechanisms and quality of the output printed labels.